From: Anton Abeyesekera, Singer Ltd., Sri Lanka, antonabey@eureka.lk Countries have national portals through which SMEs could get market access. Larger companies may have their own web sites on which to display their products, and project their company image.

But my belief is that in Internet marketing, the most effective way to link up buyers and sellers is with a web site where items are displayed on a product basis.

If a buyer is searching for a source, he will look for it on a web site where a variety of products are displayed along with company information. He will not normally search national portals.

In Asia today, Asiansources.com displays a wide variety of products manufactured in Asia. A similar site is Asianvendors.com .

From Vitaly Aristov, E-Commerce Division, Department of Trade Policy and Multilateral Negotiations, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Manakin_EM@gov.ru 

Thanks a lot for the possibility to take part in ITC's discussion forum on electronic commerce. We are sending information about the recent steps towards e-commerce regulation in Russia.

Russian government and business are undertaking several activities to promote e-commerce. There are advantages that e-commerce technologies could bring to our economic development, especially taking into account the size of the country.

We are developing the federal programme of e-commerce development in Russia for 2001-2006. The main objective is to provide a favourable environment to introduce e-commerce to the goods and services markets, which would facilitate and intensify goods and services flows.

Creating the legal base of e-commerce regulation is the central point of the programme. We are developing an 'E-commerce Law', and laws on digital signatures and electronic documents.

These laws are meant to impart confidence in e-commerce operations and they are considered as a base for creating an e-commerce infrastructure of ensured quality.

Africa is currently not poised to take advantage of international e-business. Promotions of the 'export of non-traditional foods and products' have not paid attention to investment in rural Africans - their health, education, tools and processes, etc.

Africa needs to develop internal communications channels, 'to communicate with itself,' even with assistance under international trade agreements, to build the internal dynamics required for effective competitiveness at the international stage.

Africa needs to think about its future carefully and plan strategically by investing in re-education of its peoples and re-orientation of institutions, to develop its new comparative advantages.